Dairy products may raise cancer risk
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By David Liu, Ph.D.
A report published online May 3 2001 in Proceedings of the Nutrition Society suggests that eating too much dairy products may boost risk of certain cancers.
Timothy J. Key of Oxford University in Oxford, UK says in the report titled Diet, Insulin-like Growth factors-1 and Cancer Risk that recent prospective studies show the serum concentration of insulin-like growth factor-I or IGF-1 is positively correlated with the risk of both breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men.
Dr. Key also says it is known that some studies have shown that men and women who had high intake of protein from dairy products also had higher blood levels of IGF-I.
Actually some studies have associated higher intake of dairy products directly with prostate cancer risk.
S. Rohrmann of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and colleagues in 2005 published their study in Cancer Causes & Control that suggested that eating too much dairy products, but not calcium was associated with increased risk of prostate cancer.
Rohrmann's study showed that compared to those who had less than one serving per week, eating five or more servings of dairy foods was associated with 65 percent increased risk of prostate cancer.
The study also found that eating five or more servings of processed meat, but not total meat nor red meat was associated with 53 percent increased risk of prostate cancer compared to those with no more than one serving per week.
The findings were derived from data on 3,891 men aged 35 or older who participated in the CLUE II Study of Washington County.
Likewise, studies have also suggested that eating too much dairy products may boost risk of breast cancer.
One study in the Fed 2010 issue of European Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggested that eating too much dairy products can influence the levels of sex hormones like estrogen and their activities. Hormones like estrogen are known to increase risk of breast cancer.
M.T. Brinkman and colleagues from The Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne, Australia conducted the study and found postmenopausal women eating highest amounts of dairy products like cheese and milk had about 15 percent higher total and free estradiol, which has been linked to breast cancer risk.
High levels of estradiol were correlated with 129 percent increased risk of breast cancer, compared with those who had low levels, according to a meta-analysis of data from eight prospective studies of postmenopausal women. The finding was reported in the Dec 1 2003 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers &Prevention.
It should be noted that not all studies suggest a link between consumption of dairy products and cnacer risk. But that does not mean that the studies resulting in negative associations negate the studies that show positive correlations.
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